Born
in Moscow in 1946. Boris Berezovsky,a brilliant mathematician
and strategist, had headed the lab at the Russian Institute
of Control Sciences in the Communist era,. When the
Soviet Union collapsed, he took advantage of the economic
and political chaos to acquire controlling stakes in
companies that had formerly been state-owned monopolies.
He took control of Aeroflot, formerly the national airline,
Autovaz, Russia’s main automobile manufacturer,
and Sibneft, which was formed out of formerly state-owned
oil properties. To transfer funds around the world for
himself and others in the new Russian elite, he set
up his own bank. He also bought control of prime media
outlets, including the powerful ORT television channel,
which he used to support Boris Yeltsen’s re-election
in 1996. In 1997, Yeltsen appointed Berezovsky deputy
secretary of the National Security Council, where his
primary responsibility was overseeing negotiations with
the Chechens secessionists. He was also appointed Secretary
of the Organization for Coordinating the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS), which gave him power throughout
the former Soviet Union. Because of his ascendancy to
the commanding heights of the Kremlin, an elite unit
of the Ninth Directorate of the FSB (formerly the KGB)
was assigned to protect him.
After Yeltsen’s term ended, he supported Vladimir
Putin, But by 2000, his relations with Putin deteriorated
and he suffered a literal reversal of fortune. He came
under criminal investigation for diverting hundreds
of millions of dollars from Aeroflot. He fled to his
villa in France but was arrested on a Russian warrant.
After his lawyers won his release, he moved to Britain,
which granted him political asylum and rejected requests
for his extradition to Russia. His political activities
in London aimed at undermining Putin His objective,
as he told The Guardian in 2007, was regime change in
Russia. "It isn't possible to change this [Putin]
regime through democratic means. There can be no change
without force, pressure." Asked by the reporter
if he meant to foment a revolution, he answered: "You
are absolutely correct." He set up a foundation,
headed by Alex Goldfarb, to support dissidents, which
included his former protector in the FSB, Alexander
Litvinenko.
He is currently living in London and being tried in
absentia for fraud.